In 2020, Brazil produced approximately 13 thousand tons of chicken meat, with a per capita consumption of 45.27 kilograms per inhabitants per year. These increasing numbers indicate that the production chain has benefited from improvements in genetic, nutritional, and health indices. The use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal nutrition has always led to better animal performance, mainly by reducing microbiological challenges in poultry. However, with growing concerns about human health and the risks of transferring resistant bacteria through the food chain, viable alternatives are being studied to replace prophylactic antibiotics in animal diets. One of these alternatives is the use of essential oils in animal diets, which has become a recurring practice in modern poultry farming. Essential oils are employed as a healthy and safe alternative to growth promoters, which are typically antibiotics that may pose risks to human health, particularly through the potential transfer of resistant bacteria via meat or eggs. Thus, the objective of this review was to evaluate the effect of using essential oils in poultry farming.